10.26180/5eba6b6ad7d19
EUGENIA ALESSANDRA PACITTI
EUGENIA ALESSANDRA
PACITTI
The Body Collected: A social and cultural history of human specimen collections and museums in Australia, 1862–2015
Monash University
2021
history of medicine
specimen collecting
medical education
medical schools
dissection
social history of medicine
history of collections
museums
collecting culture
material culture
history of anatomy
History
2021-05-12 00:33:06
Thesis
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/The_Body_Collected_A_social_and_cultural_history_of_human_specimen_collections_and_museums_in_Australia_1862_2015/12286925
This thesis examines the role that collected human remains assumed in the production of medical knowledge and attitudes towards the body in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Australia. Located at the intersection of the history of medicine and collecting culture, it challenges previous scholarship that has considered collected specimens to be biological objects, to recast them as dynamic cultural objects. In doing so, this thesis found collected specimens to be not only deeply embedded in the fabric of Australian medical history, but also part of evolving debates concerning the uses of human remains in the present day.